Lavrov insists Russia and U.S. are fighting same targets in Syria

Russia and the United States are fighting the same terrorist targets in Syria, including the Islamic State, Moscow's foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, said Thursday.

"We, of course, have some different views on the events in the region, but we are united on one thing: We are all worried about the rise of the terrorist threat in the region," Lavrov said during a news conference Thursday at the United Nations in New York.

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With regard to the targets, Lavrov remarked, Russia has "the same approach" as the broader coalition against "ISIL, Al Nusra, and other terrorist groups."

Responding to reports that Russian forces had dropped bombs on Syrian rebels backed by the CIA, Lavrov bristled.

"You stated this as a fact. Do you know something I don't know?" he said, as the reporter pressed, saying that it had been widely reported. "Many things have been widely reported," the minister shot back.

"When some state or a country becomes an object of a terrorist attack, you can't leave the country to fend for itself. You need an international coordinated action," he said, in defending Russia's surprise military actions that began Wednesday.

U.S. commanders in Iraq, meanwhile, have advised their Iraqi counterparts not to share sensitive intelligence information with the Russians as their operations begin in Baghdad.

Army Col. Steve Warren, a spokesman for the joint task force leading the operation in Iraq and Syria, told reporters Thursday that Iraqi officials had agreed to keep intelligence from both sides segregated.

Lavrov, speaking at the U.N., also slammed criticism of Russia's military strikes in Syria, remarking that the British and French had said they targeted areas where "people were contemplating bad things on our territory ... no proof, no nothing."

"And I think that you cannot avoid the impression that the legal basis of the coalition activities in Syria is really flawed. You cannot operate without Security Council mandate, you cannot activate without the consent of the country in question," he added. "And we said from the very beginning, when the coalition was announced, that it was a mistake not to go to the Security Council. It was another mistake not to engage the Syrian government."

The White House said Thursday that U.S. and Russian officials held their first call over untangling their missions in Syria.

"The discussion focused on ways the United States and Russia can communicate and effectively deconflict our operations inside of Syria," press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters.